nominee, will get a lot of help from the clintons and the democratic national committee. reid wilson is joining us from "the hill." him,u have questions for call the numbers on your screen. a lot of talk about the current status of relationship between the r.n.c. and key republicans and donald trump. do you see a parking of the way at all -- parting of the ways at all? guest: struggling to think of the moment in history like this. it is tough to figure it out. whether or not become campaign and the r.n.c. are seeing things i try, the republican national committee -- seeing eye to the republican national committee is a huge role in electing other republicans. they will play a large role in the paragraph state --

battleground states. all of the key senate battlegrounds in house battlegrounds are also white house states. you have the seven states president obama won twice where republican senators are up for reelection or seeking reelection. i mentioned ohio. rob portman is running for reelection in. even if the r.n.c. is not pulling out staff or fully committed to donald trump, they are going to have staffers on the ground in places where republicans need staffers in november. host: today, hillary clinton will be in pennsylvania. donald trump will be in ohio. two battleground states, the topic foreign policy. guest: this is the battleground appeals to. he has said he will make a big play for pennsylvania, ohio,

michigan. if donald trump has reignited a discussion on trade and nafta, these are the states where things like that are going to take place, where that discussion and debate are going to take place. those are states hit hardest by trade deals. while they may have been good for america as a whole, they still hurt some people. those people live in pennsylvania, ohio, michigan, indiana. places that are going to be on the battleground map this year. host: if you want to see the events for those teeter candidates, go to -- two candidates, go to c-span.org for more information on the. -- on that. c-span.org is where you can see that and learn more information as well. even in the papers today, "the washington times" says connecticut is an interest for trump.

it is an unusual move. guest: it is. donald is fascinating -- donald trump is fascinating. clintonto the senior campaign person last week, i asked her about utah. there has been a lot of talk utah might be on the table because donald trump is not playing their terribly well. i asked if utah was real. she said it is really hard. that is sort of the political way of saying we will not win utah. the clinton campaign does not need to win utah. on the other hand, you ask donald trump whether he will do well in a state and there is not that same sort of politic answer. he is asked about connecticut. sure, we will win.

his home state of new york has hired a separate pollster to look at new york. the republican party is not going to win new york state on the presidential level. if they do, it will be a 500 electoral votes swing the other way. the us about oregon and washington state -- he has talked about oregon and washington state, liberal states. there is a reason republican candidates go to connecticut. it is not to hold rallies. it is to raise money. i don't know if donald trump is doing that. robert ins hear from kentucky on the independents line. good morning. caller: my family has long been democrats. i was born in los angeles. i live in kentucky. i don't like mr. trump. i think he is to suspect and unfair. do you think donald trump has interest in receiving black

votes because he does not want to seem to address any black s?sues he seems to think thank you ver. guest: that is a good question because it raises the nontraditional aspects of donald trump's campaign. trump has not done a lot of the same speeches any other candidate in modern history has done. showing up at the naacp and all meeting, the urban league couple of weeks ago. he did not address them. i think this demonstrates he is an atypical candidate does not always listen to the same political advice or advisors everybody else does. which is part of his appeal to his base, that he is not politics as usual. in the other sense, there is a

reason people try to appeal to more voters. if you appeal to more voters, u.n. more -- you win more votes. he has yet to do that in this aspect bring that is another example of him being a different kind of candidate. trump ister donald being dragged across the field. trump is notdonald last more than a few days. there was a great story over the in the "near times" on sunday talking about donald trump. there was an anecdote at the end he said last week, he sat down to his advisors and promised the ende it was really and he was going to shape up and act like a real candidate estate on script.

later, he made the second amendment comment about hillary clinton. that tells you how long these resets last. compare one of donald trump's promises to stay on teleprompter to the clinton's campaign to reintroduce hillary clinton, a person who has been in the spotlight for 30 years. connecticut, independent line. caller: good morning. thank you for c-span and discussion points. i am speaking as a black, independent voter from connecticut. i have been here for about 20 years. there is a lot of discussion insofar as why donald trump is trying to make this aggressive play in connecticut. here is something i think a lot of people have not considered. throughout his campaign coming he has been making a lot of strident comments that have appealed to white supremacist voters throughout the country.

foundti-defamation league that per capita, connecticut has the highest percentage of white supremacist and hate group activity of any state in the united states. trump is making a very calculated and intriguing idea out of essentially utilizing and usurping white supremacist voters who are very active, although they are sublimated on the public purview but still extraordinarily active and vocal in their opinions to essentially tried to elicit or support at the voting booths -- their support at the voting booth in november. that can give him in as a voter security in november. issue the voter security keeps me up at night, this notion that donald trump has starting talking about -- started talking about a rigged

election. that really worries me. we have a me because president right now who 15% or 20% of americans believe is an illegitimate president of the united states based on fictional information they read on the internet. what if that number is 40%? that worries me? americans think an election was stolen? al gore and john kerry ran teeter close races with a president that beat them. in both cases, they conceded graciously and went about the business. i have a hard time thinking donald trump will concede, even if he loses by 20 points, in that sort of way. polling lately shows he is way down in a lot of states. there is a reason the clinton campaign is trying to move into arizona and georgia. it is not just to get senate

candidates to win. it is try to build her electoral vote capacity. i did not know connecticut had so many groups like that. it is surprising. i am from the west coast. i was talking to a western governor a couple of months ago. he said something like i am from the black helicopter capital of america. these groups exist all over the country. host: kirkland, washington, republican line. hello. caller: hello. in aently through 20-year-old videotape to see what was on it. "60 minutes" from a 1996 election with andy rooney interviewing bob dole. bob dole never showed up for the interview. andy rooney was just interviewing an empty chair. i thought it was quite interesting.

dole,estion he asked bob the question was, "the public does not seem to be much influenced by bad things politicians do. there been so many politicians who got caught stealing or did something else wrong and were reelected. but it seems sometimes as if the people just don't care about the , whitewater, gennifer flowers, or anything like that. if any of these charges are true about the clintons, with that really matter to voters -- with that really matter to voters? do we just get tired in these elections were all the questions are back and forth question mark doesn't really seem to matter? guest: that is a really good point. we've talked about how the 2016 election is the post-trip

post-truth election. history repeats. apparently 20 years ago, it was exactly the same way. and rooney interviewing an empty chair is not the most andy rooney thing ever. he was my college graduation speaker. host: on twitter, they asked the same kind of question. are either of those stories long-lasting in this campaign? guest: they should be. there are serious stories both sides -- on both sides. the fascinating things about this election is we are also obsessed with the daily story that we miss these larger looks at what is going on. media has done a great job writing longform, deep investigative stories about

donald trump and hillary clinton. and they are on the front page of any newspaper. here is a good idea, let's all subscribe to newspapers again. the front page of sunday newspapers. they are good, interesting stories. somebody says something crazy at 8:55 on a monday morning, and it will dominate the news cycle for a day and then we miss that great story that took six months to write. the foundation is a huge story we should be concerned about. hillary clinton in releasing her taxes over the weekend showed she made at numbers of dollars -- x number of dollars from paid speeches. who was she giving the speech is to? that is mostly public record. but we should be looking at that. of those people trying to gain influence in the future? people that donate to the clinton foundation, do they want influence in the clinton administration?

the paul manafort thing in ukraine is shocking. host: in the "new york times" today. guest: these are big, important stories. if the media could get away from the five-second-story. media, cable news. the front page's deep, impactful journalism. there are some important stories. there are a lot of journalists doing a lot of work and getting stuff out there. host: reid wilson joining us for this discussion on campaign 2016. dimitri from oakland, california, democrats line. go ahead. caller: good morning. are you fooling with abraham areoln's party system -- you familiar with abraham

lincoln's party system called the national union party? it was implemented after the ending of the civil war. he has abolished the party system. are you familiar with this party? where everybody , so you don'tot have all of these problems. it gets rid of campaign finance. was the party system abolished. he was no longer a republican. he was known as national union party. sincen't you think republicans are behind abraham lincoln, why don't you think they are not union party? guest: i am not sure that is exactly how it happened in 1864

when lincoln was running for reelection. but the notion of everybody being on the same ballot exists in states like california. california, washington state both have top two primary elections. you put 18 candidates on the ballot. the top two vote getters regardless of party advanced we general election. one democrat means and republican. in california the top two vote getters to replace barbara boxer, two then democrats advanced. , even though state it is one of the most liberal states in the country, it has not elected a republican governor since 1980. ballot finalists on the in november for state treasurer will both be republicans.

washington state gets a republican treasurer because they finished in the top two in the voting. host: mark on the republican line. comment i would like to make quickly. being from upstate new york, we saw what hillary's policies do for upstate new york and the people up here. we are the forgotten people. vote for hillary, go right ahead. she represents cheating, lies, and theft. if you want to go back to work again, roll up your sleeves and vote for donald trump. thank you so much for having me on c-span. guest: mark rings up another good example of important journalism and the way the media is covering this campaign.

week, there was a good story in the "new york times" about hillary clinton's record in upstate new york as a senator. jobs,omised x number of 200,000 jobs to upstate new york and those jobs never showed up. that is a good story. is part of her record. upstate new york has been impacted. we think of new york as a liberal state. the upstate, especially in western new york when the are no in union jobs longer there thanks to trade deals that have shipped a lot of that oversees. republican outpost in a larger democratic state. but clinton promised to deliver jobs and the jobs never showed up. another example of good journalism and people paying

attention to more than just the media. trump,f you are donald what crosses your mind? guest: that he is entirely running a campaign about himself. age, it is sod much easier to run a campaign by attacking the other candidate. by making the other candidate appear unpalatable. donald trump is not doing that. if you have watched any of the election coverage, clinton is running two as. she's running a positive economic ad and the other is donald trump on letterman as he sits there and says, where is his maid? there is a negative. -- ad. trump has a lot of opportunity

to talk about hillary clinton and things she has done wrong, whether the e-mail server, the foundation, her relationship with james comey at the f.b.i. she said he essentially unsolved her, and he did not at all. there is a lot to talk about hillary clinton, even the upstate new york jobs. donald trump does not do that because he feels he's being treated unfairly. cornerstoneing the word of his campaign. one wonders for someone that wealthy how much it matters if something is fair. host: next is julian on the independent line. caller: the reason i am calling is i have noticed all morning, you fellows have talked about only two good candidates. as if they were the only two people who are going to appear

on the ballot in november. candidates who have serious political experience and serious policy positions established and the media just as not talk about. an example of how that affects the binary way of people think, the gentleman who called in from he york a minute ago said did not like mrs. clinton, so therefore he was going to vote for trump, as if trump was the only other alternative. the question i have is -- and i could probably answer the question myself -- why is he not thinking about the possibility of johnson and weld? the answer is you folks in the media don't focus any attention .n those candidates

serious politicians with solid political experience that you folks ignore in your binary way of thinking. is either this one or that one. the world is broader than that. host: thanks. guest: credit where credit is due. the libertarian ticket has combined four decades of gubernatorial experience. he was the ambassador to mexico under george bush. it is interesting. the reason the media does not cover candidates like gary in the 17ill stein, other people who will appear on a lot of state ballots is because a significant portion of americans are not interested in them. as it stands today, election day

probably 98% of americans would vote for hillary clinton or donald trump. it is this vicious cycle. if gary johnson was suddenly at 20% in the polls, we would be talking about him a lot more. however, he cannot get 20% in the polls until he gets more media attention because the average american does not think the libertarian party is a viable option or is already wedded to one of the major parties. credit where credit is due, they have two, two-term governors on the ballot. gary johnson said he has not smoked marijuana in at least three months. partiesprofile on third in recent weeks on this program, half-hour interview with three johnson last week, i half-hour interview with jill stein the week before. jill: both gary johnson --

stein has a town hall on cnn coming up soon. the libertarian party is getting more serious attention this year than it has in the last several elections. which sort of puts the onus on them to score higher than the 1.7% or whatever you got four years ago. line, alicia,an go ahead. caller: i am a 76-year-old woman. i would like to know how the polls are taken. olled. never been pulled why not? is somebody in the media going to do something about bernie sanders buying a house that cost $600,000 when he was supposed to be so poor his candidates had to send $17 to him? guest: how did you find out

about that story? host: -- caller: it was on tv the other day. guest: the media did something about it. caller: this was announced last week. the media only said something about it one time. guest: i don't think that is true. let me start with your earlier, first question about polling because it is a good question and something we should understand how this works. there are going to be a lot of questions about polling. there has been for the last several election cycles. there have been problems with polling not just here but also in the u.k., israel, basically anywhere or functioning democracies happening, the polls are getting it wrong. why? here is how a poll is taken. i used to be a polling editor which was a lot of fun. there are 330 million americans. there are 160 something million

registered voters. a typical national poll surveys 1000 people. , theu take 1000 people odds of you being picked for one poll are very small. talk to anybody in a state like i and new hampshire in the days leading up to the presidential primaries or caucuses, they have been pulled six or seven times probably that day. inave some friends that live they would stop answering their phone because it andpollster after pollster campaigns trying to get their information. they take these 1000 people and ask their various opinions. there are standard questions they ask. they might ask what ever. they take those final 1000 hem.le and weight t

hypothetically, 95% are white. 55% are men. the electorate is probably going to be 48% men. 55% a little less weight. you give a 45% who are women more weight. the pollster is trying to figure out what the electorate is going to look like. polling is not a science. it is part art. the art comes in figuring out what the electorate is going to actually look like. white,nte experts college educated. poll andke any given

assume the electorate is going to be 90% white, you are going to get a very different number for donald trump versus hillary clinton than if you assume the electorate is going to be 69% white, which is what most think it will be this year, the percent of whites who make up the electorate. it has been falling two to four points every two years since about 1992. host: from clinton, maryland, independent line. robert, go ahead. caller: i listen to talk about the media and how you say mr. trump is unfair. everything the media says is a blatant lie. anybody who believes something that comes out of the media are stupid. we all know you just have to convince 50% of the people in certain states like florida and virginia and ohio. you say you don't think this system is rigged.

i present to you, sir, the electoral college. mrs. clinton is sitting with 220 electoral votes. andvalue of these states these electoral votes are in new york, california. all locked in -- guest: robert. host: let him finish. caller: you know as long as electoral college exists, there is no way any republican will ever get in office. it is a crooked, rigged system and you know it! host: in major point. we will let -- you made your point. we will let him respond. guest: in 2000 the rigged electoral college, george w. bush won fewer votes than al gore. but in the electoral college, he won more votes. the other half of america

complained about that. we are talking about the electoral college, something literally written into the is being a rigged system. i find that questionable. this is the funny thing about this year. ,e have had two campaigns bernie sanders and donald trump, whose fans have largely complained -- in part complained about the system being rigged, the rules being stacked against , when it was very clear they did not bother to understand the rules. nobody thought we would get to a fall general election campaign and all of a sudden, we were going to run under a system that was different than the electoral college. it is written in the constitution. that is how i make my money, paying attention to the electoral college.

sanders in the primary, his people were complaining about superdelegates, caucuses versus primaries. they were sort of surprised. democratsates, require you to vote to cast a ballot. those are the rules. nobody was changing the rules as we went along. those were the rules. it illustrated we live in the only functioning democracy in the world in which election rules are not centralized. they are not federalized. there are different rules in texas and california and new york and everywhere else. a typical presidential campaign pays attention to those rules and takes advantage of them where they can. remember to thousand eight during the democratic primary, barack obama's campaign really understood they could run up a bunch of delegate totals in caucuses. hillary clinton went around winning big states like

california and she would get four or five delegates. geta would win idaho and eight or something like that because they understood the rules better. host: our guest is the national correspondent for "the hill," wilson. guest: i am from the west coast. came out inasures georgia in 1780 so we have been practicing direct tomography for a long time. away western states fought back against robber barons and railroad companies that controlled their state legislatures. they would put a ballot initiative on the ballot and pass it and do something different for the state.

it was a way for the citizens to reclaim their government. this year and in the last decade or so, we have seen the two parties or interest groups within the parties trying to put ballot measures on the ballot that will advance their agenda or turn out voters on their own behalf. 2004, there were something like 11 states that had ballot measures that would have banned same-sex marriage. a lot more swing states. the bush campaign was big fans of those because they thought they would bring out more evangelical voters to vote for george bush. he ended up winning in ohio by a smaller margin than the ballot measure passed by. academics fight over whether that worked in turning people out. the bottom line is they thought it might help get a few more people to the polls. after 2010 when republicans andt the power in the house state legislatures across the

country, and in 2014, they won control of the u.s. senate and theretate legislatures, are not many places were democrats have full control. i think it is seven states. what progressives and liberals are doing around the country is putting ballot measures on the ballot that effectively advance their own agenda. and they don't have to go through the state legislature. host: such as? guest: there are expansions in washington state and colorado. there are death penalty appeals in a couple of different states, nebraska being one of them. there are a lot of conservatives who feel the same way. there are big battles over solar and expanding alternative energy programs in states like florida. and then there is marijuana. marijuana is regional -- legal for recreational use in quarter states. it is on the ballot in five

states this election cycle. if it passes in all five of those states and it could, 100 members of congress out of the 435 members of the house will represent a state where marijuana is legal for recreational use. that is a heck of a seachange and probably going to spur federal legislation. host: that story is available on "the hill" website. wilson wrote that among others related to campaign 2016. caller: i admire your guest. he is an analytical person like me. i'm supporting hillary rodham clinton were think is the -- who i think is the best person. i am reading at least five books right now. one of your colleagues wrote this book.

i think she is one of the most qualified persons. i would like to have his opinion on this. i am concerned about this misinformation. i am concerned about the right wing media. they are rehearsed. they broadcast little soundbites, the same rhetoric, the same rehearsed information. our people are challenged with information. what do you think about the fact that people are challenged by so much information and are confused? one of the persons i don't think is qualified at all and even his own party is questioning about him. i wonder if your guest would comment about the right-wing misinforming people. are in the same

building as fox news, so i won't talk too loud or they might come up and beat me up. i am kidding. ed said something interesting that gets to the anger at the media. that issay "the media," like lumping a plumber and painter in as the same industry when they are totally different jobs. anyway, i will get to that later. what ed said that is interesting is there is so much information, and there really is. right now if you kind of believe something, there is a news outlet that will gladly reinforce your ideas. whether that is left, right, center, or totally kooky. most of it seems totally kooky right now. there is so much media that we all have to figure out which we are going to consume with our limited time. there are right wing news outlets. there are left-wing news

outlets. and there is c-span in the middle. c-span is nonpartisan. that is why we love c-span. the point is there is so much .edia to consume you have to pick the one you trust, essentially. then you should spend a lot of time reading the ones you don't trust or the one that challenges your view of what is normal. there is my mini soapbox on media. more call, margaret, delray beach, florida, independent line. caller: good morning. i am so glad i got in. i ame point you just made, no donald trump's supporter or hillary clinton. i am no fox news fan. the left controls media, to

think the "new york times" is where i would go to get bipartisan, unfiltered information is a joke. the majority of teachers are left. the colleges, the majority of teachers are left. i have two children who have gone through college. what is fascinating is how little information is being and parentsldren who are out working. when barack obama was elected, i did not vote for him. i think it is interesting you brought up the percentage of people who think he is not from this country. i did my own call and i work in social services. him,eople who voted for the first thing i would ask is why they voted for him and what they thought he was going to do on his platform. never did i hear from so many people who were so sure voting for a president who had no

information about him. to help go back congress works, how a law is passed. this is the most uninformed electorate. chthink it is funny to wat explodetists' heads with fox news. guest: she brings up some interesting points. i think those in other parts of media like that fox news does well because it means they might do well. fox's success on the right will lead to msnbc trying to be the same thing on the left. i won't get into that. margaret raises an interesting point about the lack of civics and lack of civility in the election. one of the things that struck me from the beginning, and we are getting to donald -- getting

donald trump's speech on radical terrorism today. one thing that struck me during the republican primary is the lack of in-depth policy speeches or policy proposals any of the candidates got this time around. that any of the candidates gave this time around. usually, you see a lot of people rolling out their tax proposals and economic proposals and foreign policy outlines. that did not happen a lot on the republican side because it became the donald trump show. therump had not been in race, we would have seen more policy coverage and proposals. one can only hope in the next 86 days both clinton and trump given number of in-depth speeches that tell us what they would do if they were elected president.

>> our c-span 2016 bus is in chicago this week. >> i am from the northern part of louisiana. probably the most important issue in our state is education. that we are ongs top of the bad list and bottom of the good list is because of a lack of education. of the general population louisiana, we need to do a good job in early childhood education and going forward. from thee is ryan, i'm u.s. virgin islands. the most important issue in my district right now, i would say, is having the united states grants the virgin islands the right to vote for presidential elections.

we are allowed to vote in the republican and democratic nomination, but we don't have a right to vote for president. americansly, more have died in combat per capita in the u.s. virgin islands that any state or territory under our flag. >> one of the most important issues to me is the economic issue and a job. people the problem of that are impoverished all over this country is that they don't have a voice at work. i am a union member and a strong advocate for having that voice at work. we need to strengthen and enforce our laws and encourage people to organize and have that voice. pete, i am the state rep from colorado springs, colorado.

the most important issue to be right now is criminal justice and criminal justice reform. we have been working in colorado on modifications to the criminal justice system to incorporate restorative justice, a way for people to accept responsibility for what they did and repair the harm. >> my name is patrick o'neill jefferson and i have the principal chair representing district 11 in the great state of louisiana. i am proudly supporting hillary rodham clinton to become the 45th president of the united states of america. i believe secretary clinton has all of the essentials necessary to lead us in such a time as this. in addition to experience, she also provides an outlet so that we would be able to tackle all of the necessary evils of the day. stronger, we are better together.

>> voices from the road on c-span. >> the c-span radio app makes it easy to continue to follow the 26 election. it is free to download from the apple app store or google play. get up-to-date information for c-span radio and television, plus podcast times for programs. stay up-to-date on all the election coverage. needs youadio app always have c-span on the go. >> coming up in just a minute or so, we will show you hillary clinton campaigning with vice president joe biden in scranton, pennsylvania today. we caught up with members of congress in their districts. here's a look at some of their tweets. with record rainfall in louisiana, congressman charles

boustany was part of a press beingence and others briefed on the situation in his district. congressman jim walsh spent -- tim walz spent his time with and agriculture organization, speaking with farmers about their needs before the next farm bill comes up. republican representative bruce westermann spent his day at a plastic fabrication company in arkansas, sharing these photos. congressman dave went back of iowa was that the fair, telling his credit -- telling his supporters on twitter that it is not an official visit until you flip porkchops. in nebraska, republican senator deb fischer sat down for coffee in the city of kimball. senator mark warner had this tweet. meeting with community leaders in franklin county, he gave an

update on all the good news from washington. lays out the case for clinton perjury over e-mails. two top house republicans accuse hillary clinton of appearing to lie to congress, laying out a case monday that they say could sustain perjury charges for her use of a secret e-mail server. andciary committee chairman oversight committee chairman jason chaffetz say the evidence gathered during the investigation of clinton's e-mail use contradict what she told congress during testimony this year. they released a video about their plans. let's take a look. ♪ there was nothing marked classified on my e-mails, either sent or received. nothing was marked classified at the time i sent or received it. comey:r komi -- director

a very small number of the e-mails here bore markings that indicated the presence of classified information. even if information is not marked classified in an e-mail, participants who know or should know that the subject matter is classified are still obligated to protect it. physically look at the 62,000 e-mails or to use search terms, parameters? ms. clinton: they used all of that. they also went through every single e-mail. director comey: lawyers doing the certain -- doing the sorting of the e-mails did not read all of the content as we did. instead, they relied on header information and they used search terms to try to find all work-related e-mails among the reportedly 60,000 that were remaining on your system at the end of 2014. it is highly likely that their

search missed some work-related e-mails and that we later found that, for example, in the mailboxes of other officials are in the slack space of servers. ms. clinton: there was a server -- >> the one server that the fbi has? ms. clinton: the fbi has the server that was used during the tenure of my state department service. >> secretary clinton used several different servers during her four years at the state department. she also used numerous mobile devices to send and receive e-mails. equipmentvers and were deployed, all observers were taken out of service, and decommissioned in various ways. ms. clinton: i provided the department with all of my work-related e-mails. the fbi alsoy:

discovered several thousand work-related e-mails that were not part of the group of work-related e-mails returned by secretary clinton. there were other work-related e-mails that were not produced by state and that we did not find, that are now gone. christ coming up next, hillary clinton contains with vice president joe biden in scranton, pennsylvania. ater that, donald trump gives speech of his foreign policy in youngstown, ohio. that is followed by your phone calls. [no audio] >> ladies and gentlemen, please welcome the vice president of the united states, joe biden, and hillary clinton. ♪